Sidebar: Network Client Installation

Solaris is distributed on a CD-ROM. A year ago, when I was upgrading several clients from SunOS to Solaris, I used to have to carry around a CD-ROM drive, attach it to each workstation and verify it, boot from the CD-ROM and install the OS, then remove the drive and move on to the next workstation. Unfortunately, this method was slow (even when I used a double-speed drive), and required installing clients in a linear fashion. I have since then set up a server on the network so that new clients can boot directly from it. This tends to be somewhat faster, and several clients can be set up in parallel. You need an install server on the network, and if any clients are not on the same Ethernet segment as the install server, you must also have a boot server on each segment. The disk requirements are about 25 Mb for the boot server, and about 320 Mb (including the boot directory) for the install server.

Full instructions for setting up an install server (and a boot server, if needed) accompany the Solaris distribution media, and the process is fairly simple. I used our primary NFS server as the install server, and my workstation as a boot server for my subnet. I have only had occasion to install one client with this system so far, but it is very easy once the servers are set up. Just type boot net from the PROM prompt, and from there it's the same as a regular install.